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Julian at Oostende-Konterdam, Belgium

29 June, 2013 - 20:50 — Nev

OOSTENDE-KONTERDAM 1.12 Elite/U23 City Centre Criterium - It was a dull and windy day on the coast of Belgium in Oostende, me and my friends turned up to the criterium with little information about the event and we didn't know what to expect so we were luck we got the last 3 places in the race and only finished getting ready 10 minutes before the start, it was a big rush!
Looking around on the start line there was a good field semi-pro's and full time pro's making up the peleton with the Belgian national criteruim champion also present, I pushed my way to the front and the race started off fast with me getting in a split after the first corner For the first 20 minutes I must have attacked over 10 times getting into small breaks with some of the big names and it soon became obvious who were the strong riders and I knew who to watch.
I attempted to chip away in small breaks for around 1 hour until eventually a break of 7 went with the Belgian champion in it. I had been in a few of the breaks with the Belgian champion and figured he was strong and the break would most likely hold, the group eventually whittled down to around 20 riders which I was in. We averaged 27mph on a very twisty course with S, bends and 90+ degree bends and few kerb jumps were executed and a few crashes also happened during the 1.45 hour race. It started to rain after about 1 hour of racing but I got in a few more small breaks but nothing was bridging across or staying away with the pace remained high and it was a matter of getting to the finish now. I managed to get 28th in the end and this is my best result by far in Belgium and I am very pleased with how it went I was aggressive and against a professional field. 28th is a position to be happy with, the Belgium criterium champion did win the race in the end